Loco moco…sounds “crazy”, doesn’t it?! This unique Hawaiian dish is quite popular over in Hawaii but not very well known in the rest of the world. Its components are neither exotic nor difficult to procure - hamburger, egg, gravy, rice - yet for some reason, it has intrigued me ever since I first read about it. I had to make it. And yes, it was good! It’s a comforting meal that’s easy to make on a weekday after work.
Loco Moco
serves 2.
enough cooked white rice for 2
2 hamburger patties
2 eggs
oil (I use sunflower)
1 tbsp flour
1 cup beef stock, or stock from a cube
salt and pepper
You can either make your own hamburger patties or do what I did and just purchase them. There’s a stall at my farmer’s market that sells some quite nice ones. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and fry your hamburgers until done to your liking. Remove and keep warm. Either add more oil to the pan or remove oil - whatever you do, leave about 1 - 1.5 tbsps of oil in the pan. Add the flour and cook together until the roux darkens, stirring constantly with either a whisk or a spatula. Add the broth, whisking or stirring constantly. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you have a separate pan, fry your eggs in it. If not, decant your gravy into a bowl and keep warm. Use the same pan to fry your eggs. I like them over-easy.
To put it together, on each plate or shallow bowl, place enough rice for 1 person. Top with a hamburger patty and top that with a fried egg. Pour gravy overtop. Dig in!
We had some garlicky spinach on the side to, you know, be somewhat healthy!
I love dishes cooked long and slow. I think I’ve already mentioned this before. Now that the weather’s turned chilly again (wasn’t summer a bit short this year?), my thoughts turn to soups and stews and braises and to this tomato sauce, an oft repeated recipe in my flat. I think I first came across this recipe in one of the glossy weekend magazines that come with the newspaper. Of course, not knowing the actual name of the dish, I cannot find it anywhere online. Oh, the butter is my little addition.
Please forgive the hideous photo - normally we serve the pasta first and the meat second (the two courses) but we were extra lazy this time and dumped the meat on top.
Beef and Tomato Sauce
serves at least 4.
2 x 700mL bottles of passata
500 g braising steak
2 large onions, chopped
olive oil
4-5 tbsps butter
freshly ground black pepper
salt and sugar to taste
OK, folks, it doesn’t get any easier than this. Heat some olive oil in a pan over medium heat and fry your onions until they’re golden. Dump them into the bottom of a large, heavy based pot or casserole or into a slow cooker. If your steak is one giant one, slice it up into more manageable portions. Lay them in a single layer over the onions. Pour all the passata overtop along with some salt and plenty of pepper. Add the butter too. Reduce the heat and set the pot to simmer for a few hours. I use a slow cooker (it’s actually my rice cooker but it doubles as a slow cooker) and cook it for about 4 hours at what I can only assume is a high heat setting. Adjust the times for your own slow cooker.
Your flat/house is going to smell amazing during that time. Towards the end of cooking, have a taste and adjust for salt and sugar. Stir well to make sure the onions are incorporated into the sauce.
Boil some pasta and mix it with some of the sauce - that’s your first course; isn’t it the Italian thing to serve pasta first as it’s cheaper and will fill you up before the more expensive second course? The meat is served up as the second course and a little salad on the side wouldn’t hurt either. Dessert? Well, that’s the only thing this recipe won’t help you with!
This recipe makes quite a bit of sauce and we ate it with pasta the first day. Tonight, I’m shaking things up a bit by frying some courgettes and mushrooms and mixing in the beef, shredded, and the sauce. Eggs will be cooked overtop and we’ll eat the lot with bread. The sauce can also be used in lasagnas or as pizza sauce - it’s a multi-purpose tomato sauce.
Apologies, all, I just needed to share this beautiful slice of jamón ibérico de bellota that I brought back from Barcelona. This is top of the line ham from free range Iberian pigs fed with acorns. We only just opened up the package (vacuum sealed) this past weekend.
Here a slice is presented on a slice of sourdough bread but I ended up picking it off and eating them separately. Oh my goodness, it’s so marvelous. It’s soft and not very salty and oh so tasty. Well, it had better be good for the price I paid! While a small amount (I bought a little under 100g) is still affordable, it’s definitely not everyday ham.
I purchased this ham at El Celler del Pernil, C/ Pi I Margall 71, in Barcelona.
Update: The sister photo (shown below) to the above was featured as Photo of the Day on Serious Eats on Sept 27!
I feel slightly ridiculous writing instructions on my latest obsession as it’s so so easy to put together. Essentially, it’s boiled chickpeas with olive oil and pepper.
But! They aren’t just any old boiled chickpeas…the ones I’m obsessed with are boiled for at least 4 hours (that’s after soaking overnight too), giving the legume an almost creamy interior. Canned chickpeas still tend to have too much of a bite to them but I’ve recently discovered that my local shop sells large jars of a Spanish brand of chickpeas that are closer to the creaminess I desire. If you cannot find similar jars or don’t wish to have a pot on the boil for so many hours, the chickpeas from a tin can be poured into a pot of water and boiled for a further half an hour or so until the required texture is achieved.
Place a few heaping spoonfuls on a dish or in a bowl and drizzle plenty of extra virgin olive oil on top. Then a good few twists of the black pepper grinder and perhaps a little sprinkle of fleur de sel if it isn’t salty enough. Mix it all up together, or leave it as it is to keep the pretty pepper specks on top, and eat. Mmm…who knew chickpeas could taste this good?
